Weezer will be on campus Friday to headline the Welcome Week Concert, which is organized by the Ohio Union Activities Board using a portion of the mandatory Student Activity Fee. But OUAB will not reveal how much it paid Weezer or any other performers who have visited Ohio State.
Last September, the Board of Trustees approved an increase to the activity fee, from $15 per quarter to $25 per quarter. The increase took effect during Winter Quarter and resulted in a larger OUAB budget.
OUAB receives 52.75 percent of the activity fee, said Linnea Larson, OUAB concert chair, in an e-mail. That percentage amounts to about $2.11 million, a February Lantern article reported. It is OUAB policy not to disclose how much it pays music artists and other performers to come to campus, Larson said.
“Because there are several venues in town and in the general college market making offers to many of the performers we try to bring to campus for free shows, OUAB would be at a competitive disadvantage if we disclosed that information while others do not,” Larson said.
Some college media booking agencies provide estimates on their websites for how much particular acts cost, but Weezer is not listed on many major agency websites, including Main Stage Productions and White Leaf Entertainment.
BookingEntertainment.com, which does list Weezer, refused to disclose its asking price because it varies depending on the concert venue.
Weezer’s publicist did not respond to The Lantern‘s e-mail for comment.
Some students, including Justin Villanueva, a second-year in city and regional planning, approve of how OUAB uses money from the activity fees.
“The OUAB free concert series is pretty genius, actually,” Villanueva said. “Utilizing our Student Activity Fee to bring people together for something other than sports.”
And although some students might be unsatisfied with OUAB’s concert choices, the board does take into account student preferences.
Students can submit suggestions online at ohiounion.osu.edu, and OUAB conducts feedback surveys during events and ticket releases, Larson said.
“We thought Weezer would be appealing to Ohio State students because Weezer is a band that has fans through multiple generations,” she said, “starting with the creation of the band in the early ’90s through today.”
Weezer will be joined by two opening acts: Chelsea Automatic and Town Monster. The performance will begin at 7 p.m.
The activities board anticipates that “several thousand” students will attend, Larson said.
Last year’s Welcome Week Concert, featuring Priscilla Renea and Shiny Toy Guns, took place at Buck-i-Frenzy, which made it difficult for OUAB to estimate the number of students in attendance, she said.
